Pete Dadds/Netflix
Squid Game: The Challenge is the most addictive kind of reality show. In some moments, it’s all about social strategy, and in others, the results come down to a very random and specific set of skills. (Like licking a cookie enough to release a very delicate umbrella from its shell.) Really, however, the appeal of this show is even simpler than that: It’s also chock-full of very fun, very captivating games.
In adapting its mega-popular Korean dystopia series, Squid Game, into a real-life race in which 456 people compete to take home $4.56 million, Netflix has borrowed a few tricks from its own reality franchise, The Circle—particularly that show’s passion for keeping its players on their tippy-toes through constant switch-ups and misdirection. While many of the trials featured in Squid Game: The Challenge come straight from the original, down to the disturbingly childlike sets, this show also features a handful of new games that reliably land when players least expect them.
But which is the best one? Here, for your perusal, is a ranked list of all the games, challenges, and “tests” from worst to best—including, as No. 1, an exhilarating, human-sized version of a board game many viewers will have played at least once in their lives.